Recognizing ADHD in Adults | Heather Brannon | TEDxHeritageGreen (2023)

Introduction

Many people feel badly about themselves and have no idea why. They just aren’t interested in opening their mail or picking up their clothes from the floor. They feel ashamed because they believe the people around them who say they’re lazy, have a serious character flaw, or—at best—are quirky. They don’t realize that adult ADHD doesn’t look like ADHD in kids, and remaining undiagnosed can make them feel anxious, overwhelmed, and powerless.

Speaker Heather Brannon, MD, draws on 14 years of experience treating adult ADHD. A family physician who has been practicing for nearly 30 years, she realized that many patients who felt overwhelmed, anxious, easily frustrated, and tired actually had ADHD and that diagnosing it correctly and treating it was life-changing for those patients. She decided in 2014 to devote her entire practice to adolescents and adults with ADHD.

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This presentation debuted during TEDxHeritageGreen 2021: TRUTH, held in three short virtual sessions on April 23, 25, and 27—visit www.tedxheritagegreen.com for more info. It was a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at www.ted.com/tedx. A family physician who has been practicing for nearly 30 years, Heather Brannon, MD, sees adolescents and adults and is very passionate about the diagnosis and treatment of ADHD. Her interest in ADHD began when, as a primary care provider in a family practice, she realized that many patients who felt overwhelmed, anxious, easily frustrated, and tired actually had ADHD—and that diagnosing it correctly and treating it was life-changing for those patients. She decided in 2014 to devote her entire practice, Greenville ADHD Specialists, to adolescents and adults with ADHD. Heather completed her internship and residency at Womack Army Medical Center in Fort Bragg, NC, and has served as a staff physician in a combat support hospital, behavioral science curriculum coordinator, medical director of a family practice residency clinic, and chief of staff of a community hospital. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at www.ted.com/tedx

Content

Transcriber:, Minh-Hung, Nguyen, Reviewer:, Hani, Eldalees, Most of the time.

When you think of somebody with ADHD, this is what you think of.

But.

Now I’d, like for you to meet Sally., Sally is an incredibly creative person.

She has a master's in fine arts from Boston University.

She’s.

The person that people at work come to if they need fresh ideas.

Sally has ADHD.

So Sally is driving down the road.

And there’s this constant conversation going on inside her head., She’s thinking.

Why did I have to look at that? Last email?, I thought it was going to take me two minutes to write a response, and 20 minutes, later, the stupid thing still isn’t written.

And, I’m, late., And I would say I’m going to do better.

Next time., But I say that every single day and nothing changes.

So, what’s the deal? And, then friends and family, people who love Sally, say, things, like, you forgot.

How.

Could you forget? I told you 10 times., Are, you listening to me? Do.

We need to get your ears checked? Are.

You just not paying attention? Or.

How could you go to the grocery store? All? We needed was bread and milk, and you come back with a hundred and fifty dollars worth of groceries and no bread or milk.

How does that happen? So? You can see this would be a hard place to have confidence because Sally has her voice on the inside of her head, telling her she’s not doing well.

And she has voices on the outside of her head confirming it.

So.

This makes Sally anxious.

As.

You can imagine, a lot of adults who have ADHD feel anxious, actually, 75 percent of adults who have anxiety actually have ADHD as the cause of their anxiety.

Whether, they're anxious or not.

They know something is not right and they'll make monumental efforts to make it right., But, it's, still, not right., And, they're, usually waiting for the other shoe to drop, for everybody else to figure out they're, not as competent as they appear.

But.

Here’s the thing.

Sally is actually competent.

So what's, going on? What's going on with ADHD? At.

Its core, ADHD is a deficiency of neurotransmitters, mainly dopamine and norepinephrine.

You need dopamine to be interested in things like what your husband is telling you to get at the grocery store; and need norepinephrine for executive functions like concept of time and prioritizing.

Because.

You need to know how much time has passed.

So you know whether you need to stop answering that email.

So you can get to your appointment.

And.

You need to know that it's more important to get to the appointment on time than it is to finish that email today.

And.

There are many.

Many other examples, I can give.

Now I’d like for you to meet Tom.

Tom is a people person.

He is a great friend.

He can connect with just about anybody.

Tom checks.

His mail about once a week, usually when the door of the mailbox, won’t close all the way because there’s so much mail in there.

Tom has to force himself to go get the mail, and he brings it in.

And he sets it down on the table because the mail is not interesting.

Unfortunately.

He sets to the mail down on last week’s mail and that sitting on top of mail from the week before that.

So, the mail started out being an interesting.

But then it ended up being overwhelming.

And at some point, Tom, just swept all the mail into a box and stuck the box in a closet.

And.

It doesn’t matter that there were bills that needed to be paid because they’re not interesting until the situation becomes overwhelming.

And now the water gets turned off because Tom didn’t pay his water.

Bill.

Now.

He’s interested.

And.

This doesn’t just happen at home.

It happens at work, too., At, home.

If Tom is overwhelmed, he can just move right past it.

But.

He doesn't have that luxury to work.

So.

If you see Tom sitting in a meeting, he is just seething internally because he has so much that he has to do.

And these people are just wasting his time in another boring meeting., And, the problem, it’s not just the mail.

It’s, the mundane details of human existence that we all have to deal with, like going to the doctor, going to the dentist.

And people with ADHD know, they need to do them, but they're either mundane or they're, overwhelming.

And.

You can see that neither one of those situations will get the job done.

Until.

The situation becomes so big that they have to address it.

So.

These are people who are living their life in crisis.

All the time.

And, just think about the health implications of that, the risk of heart attack.

The high blood pressure.

The weight gain.

And.

This doesn't just affect the person with ADHD.

It affects everybody around them, because they don't understand what's going on.

But.

Then neither does the person with ADHD.

Nobody understands what's going on.

So.

This is the corporate executive who has great ideas, but she's late getting your individual reviews.

Done.

This is the stay at home.

Mom, who is frantically running around all day, long.

But.

When her husband comes home.

The house is a mess and she hasn't even started dinner.

Yet.

This is a college professor who's, a great teacher.

But it takes him forever to grade his tests.

And.

This is the husband who has to stay late at work, because he can't get any work done until everybody leaves, because that's when he can focus.

Now, here's where this gets interesting, because most people with ADHD, including Tom and Sally, are perfectionists.

What's up with that? It’s.

All about the shame.

Because.

They know what they need to do, they're, clear thinking adults, but they can’t get it done.

And.

They have a world of people who see that they’re not getting things.

Done., They, don't, understand., They're, not aspiring to be that person.

They're, trying really hard not to be that person.

And.

It’s not working.

In, their minds, the only way to counter the shame of not getting something done.

And then hearing about it is to do it perfectly.

So what's, the solution? That’s, the best part of this conversation, because there is a solution.

Medication helps tremendously because this is a chemical deficiency.

Sally gets her ADHD treated.

And now she can have creative thoughts without having that big swirl of ideas running around in her head.

And.

She can look at an email and see if she has time to answer it, or she needs to save it for later.

Now, Sally can be on time for her appointment.

And that frees up the perfectionist who was trying so hard to be on time before and was failing every time.

Tom gets his ADHD treated.

Now.

He can open up the bills and pay them.

And he can sit down and read a book and remember what he read.

At work, Tom can sit quietly, as any adult would in a meeting, even though it's a really boring meeting, because he doesn't have to stimulate himself to be interested in it.

Now, the corporate executive gets her reviews done.

And she has more time for great ideas.

The.

Stay-At-Home mom can spend time with her kids really being present with her kids because she's not frantically running around all the time.

The college, professor can help the students who are struggling, because he knows what their grades are.

And.

The husband can come home on time and spend time with his family because he got his work done during work.

Hours.

So does everybody have this? I, mean, don't.

We all feel stressed at times? Yes.

Of course, we all feel stressed.

But for some people, this is life, altering.

They, can't, move forward, and they live a life of hidden shame.

In.

The 28 years I've been seeing patients, in my professional opinion, I think we're looking at two to three out of ten people, and that's.

A lot of people who could be feeling a whole lot better.

Thank you for your time.